Mushroomhead: 'A Lot Of New Record Is Scratch'

On "Savior Sorrow", David "Gravy" Felton demonstrates a wide range of techniques from muscular rhythms to highly musical orchestrated figures.

Posted on Nov 21, 2006 04:15 pm

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At first blush, Mushroomhead and its lead guitarist - David Felton - seem like an easy band to peg. The de-tuned guitars playing those thumping, high velocity rhythms backed with the de rigueur double bass drums and over-the-top piercing vocals. But a closer listen to a track like Embrace The Ending reveals a more sympathetic band and player, an instrumentalist not afraid to pluck around on a nylon string acoustic and create simple atmospheric bits.
On Savior Sorrow, the Cleveland, Ohio band's newest, Gravy (nee Felton) demonstrates a wide range of techniques from muscular rhythms to highly musical orchestrated figures.
Ultimate-Guitar: The record encompasses a lot of different musical styles. How did you arrive at a guitar style that covers so many areas?David Felton: I like different stuff. I like listening to certain types of things and playing others because I play in a cover band, too. I always notice that the tunes that you always thought were the coolest shit don't always go over the best. Like playing some hokey-ass tune, the crowd response is what kind of made it. But that's kind of steering off the path, but I just like a lot of different stuff. I mean, I'm like a rock-metal dude at heart when it comes to playing guitar. But as far as like shit that I listen to, I listen to a lot of that, too, but it goes way off. Like these guys (Mushroomhead), sometimes they're like, What the fuck?What is some of that outside stuff that you were listening to?
It's more older, 70's style shit. I dig some Beatles, of course. A lot of the early Moody Blues and Cat Stevens. Shit like that. Like Sweet, Cream, T-Rex. That's the shit that I liked when I was a little, little kid, and I still dig it now. Before I started playing guitar, I would hear those tunes on the radio. If my parents or aunts and uncles and shit were sitting around rocking out and stuff, that's the tunes that I would hear. That's the stuff that kind of stuck with me. When it comes to music, I've never been trendy. It's always been about like being moved by something. If a tune, if it like moves me a certain way, I can get into it. One of my favorite modern bands is like Crowbar, and a lot of people don't really dig them because it's a hardcore style of singing or whatever. But I think that those guys capture a real doom-esque type of moody feel in a lot of their songs.
I liked upbeat Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. That was where the guitar playing shit started out. Kiss fucking started everybody. When I was into Kiss, I wanted to play guitar, got the guitar for Christmas, didn't really latch on to it as much. I had like a teacher that wasn't very inspiring and went with the drums, too. So I played drums in the school band and was gonna be a drummer. Then Ozzy came out with Randy Rhoads and like Crazy Train was all over the radio. I just thought it was the most badass riff. It's like, Fuck this, man. I've got to play that. As far as like guitar playing, I draw from all kinds of shit.
When you were initially starting the band, did you have an idea that you would use ambient sounds with multiple singers, keyboards, and everything else?
I'm not an original guy. Me and the drummer, Skinny, and the one singer, Jeffrey, the three of us were in another band called Hatrix. It was Pantera before Pantera, but a little more progressive and a little more like over-the-top showing off and stuff. A ton of double bass, a lot of like shredding guitar harmonies and shit like that. Our bass player was also really good with keyboards and stuff. So Mushroomhead evolved out of that band as a side project. I didn't really want any part of it because Skinny and Jeff were kind of starting, like not get away from metal, but they were kind of falling into that Mr. Bungle, Chili Peppers, Faith No More era of stuff in the early 90s. And I really wasn't having it.
Like I said before, even though I like all that old shit and stuff, I'm still a pretty hard rock-metal guy to the core. So when those guys started it, I didn't really want anything to do with it because I didn't want to be in a band wearing all the fucking masks and costumes and shit. They were doing exactly, kind of what Mr. Bungle was doing. And I didn't really want any part of it. So I always knew that someday I would be in it and that I could bring a lot to the table basically, as far as material goes, just because I studied music and I played in a million different bands. It was like not really a stretch musically for me to join this band. The story behind this whole thing could be a book. If I seem like I'm rambling with the answers to some of these questions, it's because it's involved and there's a lot of shit that happened with the history of this band.

"When it comes to music, I've never been trendy."

Let's jump to 2006. So this is the band's fourth record?
It's like the 3rd national release on a label. XX was the first one on Universal, which was basically a best-of of all the independent releases of the band. That's when over the course of a couple years, both of the original guitar players were gone. The one guy embezzled a bunch of money, so he got fired. Then that's when I came into the picture as a hired gun to replace him. These guys didn't want to change the chemistry of the band as far as the writing goes. I mean, if you listen to the real early shit, you'll notice there's a difference. Even though 10, 12 years have gone by, a lot of bands evolve, but it's just different now. It's more guitar-based instead of keyboard-based. That's just because nowadays with the label, we're under the gun and I can write a ton of shit real easy. It's just everybody else finding a way to fit on it.
Is the first track 12 Hundred one that you brought to the band?
No. None of it was, none of the record. We had no deal and then we got the deal with Megaforce, and we needed tunes. So we were trying to finish what we had in a hurry so that we had a complete record. We needed something else. Nobody else really had anything. Skinny just played a bunch of drum patches and I just played along with them, and that's where 12 Hundred came from. Like all those riffs are totally spontaneous. I just made them up on the spot, and then we just made a tune out of it. That's pretty much how I write. If there's a groove happening with the drums, I just jump in and usually something cool comes out of it.
What about the song Simple Survival, the first single? It's kind of an up-tempo ballad type of thing.
That came from an idea the keyboard and the bass player had. Those two get together and they work on stuff, and they bring it and they present ideas. I never even heard the original thing. Skinny, the drummer, he's my brother, by the way. Steve Felton, he's like the producer of the band basically. Even though we all sit over his shoulder and kind of throw out ideas, still he's the guy at the helm. He pushes the buttons and turns the knobs and all that stuff. And he basically does the arranging. I mean, we all do it, but he runs the computer and all that stuff. He's the one that put that beat to it, so he gave it that like driving tempo and stuff. Then I just came in and put the guitar on it. I came up with like that melody when it comes to that kind of chorus-y part after that first break and you hear that guitar slide up and it does that melodic thing. I came up with that on the spot, and the same thing with that middle part, that middle breakdown, where it goes into that chord part. Came up with that on the spot. Just sat down one day. It's like, Okay. I think it needs this, this, and this. And there it was.
I mean, sometimes I'm just not feeling it. But if something's cool, I'll bust shit out instantly. It just happens. When I sit down and try to write, I could come up with some pretty cool stuff, too, but I find it a little better and just more genuine and spontaneous. You know it's like how you listen to some records and the shit just sounds really forced, and other stuff sounds like, Yeah! It's moving. It's cool. That's why I kind of try to write like that, just so it kind of has that feel.
Talk about the guitars and the amps that you're using.
I use like the old Marshall 800s with some kind of overdrive pedal, like either that Yngwie Malmsteen, that D0D-308 pedal, or the Ibanez Tube Screamer. It just depends. But I use other things, too. I use these Randall Titans with an overdrive pedal as well. And actually on most of the record, you're hearing our 5150. I have like a real old 5150 when they first came out, and that was like my main amp back in the day with that band that I was in with Jeffrey and Skinner, back in the early 90s when we were shredding it up and stuff. So I just have all that stuff on hand, especially for the studio. Because a lot of times some of that shit, your usually thing that you're used to, just isn't translating right. I don't know if it's a microphone thing or what. When it comes to studio and capturing like the trueness of your amp and all that shit, for some reason it never comes out the way I want it. What you're hearing on the record, there's a Randall and 5150 on one song, and the majority of the other shit is a combination of 5150 and the Marshall.
What kind of guitars do you use?
The Ibanez like RG 7-strings or the Universes. Actually, I have a couple of custom-made ones, so they're more based on the RG.
Is the 7-string a big part of your sound?
Me personally, like I play in other bands, too. I've been in the same cover band for like 13 years. We would like play D-tuned songs. Or when Korn started getting popular, we started playing some of their shit. Just whatever was kind of popular. I have a couple of vintage guitars that I really don't like to take out of the house. But the only way I could do it, like to pull off some of those tunes, was to put fatter strings on some of those guitars and tune them down and all that shit for the cover band and for some other original bands and stuff, too. I was like, This is bullshit. I'm just gonna switch to a 7-string, and I'll just transpose some of these tunes. I'll just play them a little bit different. Nobody's gonna notice, and that way I can use these fucking things for every single band. So it was kind of a convenience thing for me.
I have other guitars that I thought sounded better. Like I have this Nectar Body Ibanez 6-string that was my main guitar for years. An old Les Paul, old Jackson and shit like that. I've had pretty much everything. So when I started using those 7-strings it just seemed way more rounded of an instrument. I could just do more with it and they sound great. I'm really used to it now, so I just use those for everything.
Talk about the song Save Us, which has some clean guitars in it.
That's like a strange one because like the vocal melody, the keyboards in the beginning, the clean guitars, and actually the 12th track on the record, Embrace the Ending with the acoustic and stuff, that all comes from that heavy stoner rock riff in that son. When it comes in heavy, just those chords, like everything came from that. Some of the keyboards that you hear in the beginning of the song is actually me playing. I'm not like a great keyboard player or nothing, but I know theory enough to be able to make shit work. So if Tom's not around - you know, Shmotz, the keyboard dude - I'll just try something. We have an idea just to get something rolling in a direction.
Basically I came up with this keyboard progression, just a descending progression, and I ended up figuring it out on acoustic and played it on like a nylon string, which is what you hear on the 12th track. Like the acoustic, I mean the clean guitar is in it as well, and that's also in Save Us. Basically Embrace the Ending is the reject stuff that we didn't use in the song but everybody kind of liked all that shit, the way it kind of went around different. Save Us, it would have been a 12-minute song and we didn't want that. So it's like, Let's just make a part 1 and part 2 thing and see if anybody really notices that it's kind of the same thing.

"I'm like a rock-metal dude at heart when it comes to playing guitar."

Embrace the Ending is up there with my favorite tracks on the record. To do something with a nylon-string acoustic is an adventurous thing to do. And then that electric clean part that you do in there works nice on that as well.
They move around each other well. It was a simple thing and it worked. All that nylon string guitar, that's all scratch track. See that's the thing, too. A lot of this record, a lot of shit that you hear on there, is all scratch. Like some of those keyboards in the beginning, like my keyboard track with the same chords as the Embrace the Ending thing, it's kind of low in the mix because I played it kind of shitty. Like I said, it was a scratch, but we ended up keeping it. And we ended up keeping those acoustics. We had all the intention of redoing all that stuff with a better guitar and everything because that's just a nylon string that sits around the studio. It's got like 2-year old strings on it.
But that's how you get the best stuff sometimes.
You know what? I agree. Because over-Pro Tooling it, you can suck the fucking life and the soul out of it. Everything just soundsI don't know. Listening to the radio and hearing all these modern bands, maybe I'm too old school or whatever, but I don't know, man. I'd rather hear like an old Led Zeppelin record or something.
On Embrace the Ending was the acoustic track the first track that went down and then you put the guitar picking part over the top?
Well, I was just like sitting around the studio. We'd be working on something else, and I'm just sitting there. I picked up that acoustic and I started fucking around. It's like, Oh, I'm gonna figure out my keyboard progression on guitar. Like, this will be different. While we were killing time, I did this. We had like a scratch version of Save Us, which was just that clean guitar part with Waylon and Jeff doing a bunch of their different vocal ideas. That's where we kind of came up with that idea. Because there was another thing where Embrace the Ending was gonna be like a minute long, and it was gonna go right into The Fallen, track 11. Actually, which version of the album do you have?
I have the version where Embrace the Ending is the last song.
Okay. Because there are those exclusive Best Buy ones that have some preproduction stuff at the end, and they fucked it up. But it was that scratch version of The Fallen with that Embrace the Ending thing going into it. Instead of it going right into it, there's a space between it. So they fucked it up. But the way that we had it, it was like this really mellow, cool thing going into that old fucking Sabbath-y type of tune. There were a lot of cool vocal parts, and the keyboard dude ended up kind of doing his little solo thing on there. It was an easy melodic piece for everybody to kind of fucking do something, so that's why it ended up being so long.
The bass player did some nice McCartney-type things around the guitars.
That's piano.
There's no electric bass on there?
No. That's all like piano. Clean guitar, piano, and the acoustic. And then I threw some harmonics there, too, at the time. Skinny moved them around with the Pro Tools thing. That tune, it's kind of a weird thing, because a lot of chicksI've heard girls are like, That song makes me cry. I'm like, All right.In The Fallen you mentioned there's the Sabbath thing. It's almost like a weird kind of shuffle.
Yeah, I don't know. That tune wasn't even supposed to be a Mushroomhead song. We did a Hatrix reunion, and we kind of thought we would do it for that. Put out like an anniversary box-set thing just to sell around here, and like that would be a new Hatrix song. But the dude form Megaforce loved it. That was like his favorite song out of all the shit that we had, and that's the one he picked. So that's why it ended up being on the record.
Does it usually take a couple of run-throughs to make the track sound right?
Kind of. The scratch version, it's pretty loose, but it still rocks. It's a little bit slower. The one on the record we actually played to a click, so it's even -tempo all the way through. But the other one, it was just a jam. Me and Skinny just jammed, and that's how it came out. It's another one of those things. That rock format type thing where you kind of roll with that pentatonic shape. That stuff, to me, it just comes out. I could write a whole record of that probably in a week. I've never tried, but every time I plug in and jam, that's like the first thing that comes out. Some kind of fucking rock riff like that.
I dig Pantera and I dig fucking Van Halen and Zeppelin. Crowbar, they're totally like that. A couple of their newer records, like the newest newest one is not that good, but the two before it are fucking killer. He's more melodic. Like even though he has kind of a straining hardcore style voice, the dude actually sings and hits notes. There's like some of the heaviest damn shit you've ever heard in your life. It's really just doomy and kind of old school and it's awesome. That's one of my favorite bands, man.
There aren't many solos on the record. With this band, do you not hear it as fitting with the songs?
Mushroomhead was never that kind of band. A couple of guys in the band are like, Dude, you've gotta rip on this record. You've gotta do something. And I'm like, Well, if something comes up, then I'll do it. But usually, usually time is like a factor. We spend a lot of time fixing vocals and just filling holes in a lot of these tunes with keyboards or vocal parts or whatever. So soloing with Mushroomhead is not a priority. I wanted to do it when we were writing XIII. Because I thought, You know what? The solo thing is gonna come back. I go, Why don't I rip on a couple of these songs and we'll be ahead of the game.
Now like every fucking band that toured with us as an opener, they're all ripping leads, on the cover of the fucking magazines, they're getting signature guitars. And I'm like nobody, which I don't really give a fuck because I'm a little older than all these guys, too. I proved my musical manhood back in the day, so I'd rather just do some good songs. But I mean, like on some of these tunes, I wouldn't mind doing just shit that works, like a Gilmour-ish style. Just something really tasty, you know? I'd rather hear taste than flash any day.
With a lot of the bands these days, they definitely can play their instruments, but it's hard to tell them apart. I think you know what I'm talking about.
Exactly. Dude, that's why I'm still listening to old Van Halen and Randy Rhoads!
I mean, I don't know if anything could be better than that, but play me something that stands up against that and I'll tip my hat to it.
Nobody thought it could be done, then fucking Yngwie comes out. A lot of people don't really dig him. They think he just plays fast. But if you really listen and analyze that dude, he's something else, man. Then you've got your fucking Pantera and Dimebag.

"We try to put something musical in front of our fans and shit that's not like total cookie cutter or anything along those lines."

You hit on these key players. They rise so far above the rest.
But see, that's where the songwriting comes in, though. And I was going to make this point before when I said I preferred taste over flash, but those guys all had both. Randy, Eddie, Yngwie, Dime, the dude from Loudness, Akira Takasaki. I was really into those guys. Friedman and Becker, those guys, early 90's shit, they were kind of a couple of guys I really dug. I liked some of Adrian Vandenberg's shit in the late 80's. I thought he was kind of badass. Some of those tunes were a little poppy kind of gay, but I still dug the dude's playing. That cat from Children of Bodom, that dude's good. You hear the first tune of the album, and you hear the whole album. These newer guys, like you were saying, they're kick-ass players, but they're so like stuck in trying to prove how heavy they are that they're like missing the boat in a lot of ways as far as like the songwriting.
In Just Pretending, I get a bit of the Van Halen or Randy Rhoads thing on that intro.
I wasn't really thinking of those guys. I was just trying to do something different. But I'm sure that it's like subliminally coming out because I come from that school.
What about The Need? The guitar sound on that is just huge.
Those chord progressions and stuff, that came from the other guitar dude that quit. You knew that we just lost our other guitarist, right?
Right. I heard about that.
He didn't really write a lot. He wasn't really a guitar player of sorts. He's been in the band since the beginning, but he was the guy that ran around and threw confetti and used a flashlight and shit. So when they got me in the band, he was pissed because he played guitar, but not like me. Why would you be mad? He was kind of a strange dude. So anyway, he's out and he contributed very little as far as songwriting went. That was originally like this piano chord progression that he had. He had two chord progressions, and I didn't really know how they went.
I come up with a lot of stuff, like I said before, so whenever somebody else in the band has something, I let them roll with it until they say, Hey, what can you do for this? Then I'll usually sit down and just come up with something right there. And that's kind of what happened. I sat down and I played those chord progressions, which pretty much goes through the whole tune. Like all of his original stuff ended up not getting used. Like that piano thing was our keyboard player just plinking around. Skinny used it and moved it around. The chord progressions and stuff, we just went with the shit that I came up with on the spot and I replayed it. Except for like that middle thing. There's kind of like, it's not really a solo, it's like me and Waylon at the same time. I'm kind of like going up with some chording. That was another thing of me just goofing around and Jeff and Skinny going, I like that. We should put that somewhere.What is the guitar and amp setup on that song?
It's the same thing. It's Stereo Marshall 800s and Stereo 5150 combined.
So the Stereo is a big part of that sound?
Yeah, it's just you use a couple different microphones on a cabinet. So you get like some sonic dimension because different microphones pick up different frequencies. So it's like 2 or 3 mics and whatever ones weren't out of phase ended up getting used. I was like not really happy with the guitar sound, which is why I went back and redid the album with that 5150. I played all the guitar tracks, and then these guys, they did all their editing shit to make them super tight. I play pretty tight as it is. They didn't even need to be edited. And none of us were really happy with the sound, especially after they edited everything. It became so tight that it was almost mono. So we did this little short tour for 2 weeks, which was kind of cool. It gave us all like a little vacation from the studio. I decided and I'm like, I'm gonna fuck around for a couple days. Try out all these amps. Get something better. I'm gonna redo the whole fucking record. So you hear like those Marshalls. Sometimes they're a little louder, sometimes they're not. But I redid the whole album and just played it. What you're hearing, it's unedited. We ran out of time. So I played the fucking record and that's it. There's a couple of punches a tune, and that's it. So that's almost as true as it gets, which I was kind of more into.
What about the song Cut Me?
That tune was written around the keyboard player's piano stuff. That was really the only tune he contributed to the album.
It's sort of like the epic track at 5:24 and then there's a fading breakdown. Is that an arrangement that was the result of experimenting?
It just depends on tune to tune. What happens is, it starts with an idea. Somebody else will throw something on to it, add to the idea. Then the next guy will come in and add to the idea and take it in a totally different direction. So that's kind of why every tune is sort of different style-wise and everything. That's just the way it came out. I could take it a certain way, but usually when like Jeff starts writing to it or he'll sing a part, you'll just hear something totally different. This is cool. Let's go here now. There's like no set way of thinking. It's just keep doing stuff till everybody kind of gets what we're all feeling. It's kind of a strange, unorthodox type of thing.
That song, I had like nothing to do with that song. That was the old guitar dude following Skinny's kick drums to the keyboard players little fucking dulcimer-sounding thing. Like I came in and they had that. But I played it because after that dude quit and I replayed the whole album, I wanted sonic consistency. So I just learned the song and played it. So that's like really the only song that I really didn't have anything to do with the writing on.
Was there a short time where you were playing live shows with the other guitar player?
He's been in it for a couple years. He's been in the band since the beginning. Right when the band got signed to Universal, the original guitar player, he got booted. So we brought Bronson in to play guitar and replace him.
That's what I'm saying. This band goes back like 13 years or whatever, and there's a crazy like story behind everything. Do you know where the name came from?
I have no idea.
Everybody thinks that it has to do with eating mushrooms or it's something about a fucking cock or something. When my cover band started, the other guitar dude had a really fucking bad mullet. He had like this poofy head with this tail that went down to his waist. And he was a total arrogant fucking jackass. He's a cool dude, but when it came to guitarAnd I smoked this guy. I mean, he was good. But he had to play every solo and every intro and everything when my cover band started. We played three sets and I'd play one solo. I didn't give a fuck. But this guy was such an arrogant dick, and sometime he would just be an asshole and I'd start calling him Mushroomhead because he had a fucking mushroomhead. So we practiced kind of on the same block in a different part of the building. I would leave cover band practice and go to Hatrix practice, and I would see my brother and Jeff. I'd go to jam with those guys and I'd be like, That fucking Mushroomhead asshole! I hate that fucking Mushroomhead! Fuck him! That's when those guys were starting to like get into that Chili Peppers, their Mr. Bungle, Faith No More. That's kind of, to me, when nu-metal started in a way. But that's when they started leaning in that direction, and they ran with that name. So it's kind of like a weird twist of fate that I ended up being in the band.

"I proved my musical manhood back in the day, so I'd rather just do some good songs."

What are the plans for the band now?
Well, we're under contract for another record.
And touring?
Actually we're leaving tonight. The tour starts tomorrow, first day somewhere in Illinois.
Who are you touring with?
We're the headliner. Yeah, no big bands want to tour with us. I can't imagine why because everybody in the band is really cool. Seriously, every band that goes out with us is like, You guys are the coolest. We've had the best time. And we don't give a shit. We're fucking cool with everybody. I think when it comes down to it, we're expensive. But it's just a weird thing. I don't understand why we're not like getting paid to be on Ozzfest or something like that. Because when we were on Ozzfest, we kicked fucking ass. I mean, we got just as big a fucking response as Hatebreed or Down. And we were in rotation - we weren't even a headliner. Bands like Seether and Chevelle that are all over the radio and huge, Seether played before us every day and I think Chevelle was before them. I would watch these bands and I would watch the crowds just be like, Yeah, whatever. Then we weren't even on yet, but the fucking banner would go up and the place would go nuts. I'm not tooting my own horn, but where's the fucking justice here? We're a fucking pretty killer outfit. We handle a lot of shit ourselves and we're not a bunch of jerk-offs. We just can't get a fucking break.
Do you think that might come with the new record?
I don't know. I'd like to see this record do really well and then we wouldn't need anybody anyway. But shit, man. Someone take us on a fucking arena tour. We need a fucking break. We've sold a half-million records. What the fuck?
Do you think it is because the band is so unorthodox?
Probably. I think that has a lot to do with it. I think musically, some of it is like too heavy for mega-mainstream, and too mainstream for like the mega-heavy underground or whatever. Our crowd is fucking strange. Usually the interview person is the guy that brings this up, but like the Slipknot thing, if there was no masks or gimmick or anything, Mushroomhead and Slipknot would not even be compared. Because musically, there's nothing the same at all. I've tried listening to them, nothing against them and I think there's really kick-ass things about them, but they don't write songs. I think a lot of their tunes are a mess. I'm not trying to bash them or anything, that's just an honest opinion. Actually somebody had that latest record up here and I was like, Cool. I'm gonna borrow this and check it out. I mean, I gave it an honest listen and I can honestly say that I liked maybe 2 or 3 things on it. But you know, I'm old school and I like all that shit.
Would you do the Kiss thing and go unmasked?
I think if we keep writing more radio-ish type things, that's gonna have to be the direction. Because I don't think real mainstream people are gonna take it seriously unless we present ourselves up there. The gimmick thing is cool. It gets your foot in the door to some extent or whatever, but if you're writing hit songs or whatever, they don't want to see you in some fucking silly suit - except for Kiss. That's a different type of things. Who knows? I don't fucking know. You can't predict this shit.
People will probably pick up on a good song.
I think nowadays, we're getting pretty good reviews and stuff. But there's a couple reviews here and there that are like, It's not heavy enough. Or, This dude is too whiny or too that. It's like, How can you say that? Listen to everything that's out there. There's all these bands that are just screaming their heads off and then they'll go into like this whiny part that's not even like a melody. It's just whiny
We try to put something musical in front of our fans and shit that's not like total cookie cutter or anything along those lines. Nothing trendy. Maybe it's like too different for some of these people. They're not buying it or they just don't get it because it's not following a trend, which to me is kind of cool in a way. It's like, Okay, give us the review and say that you don't like it because it doesn't remind you of Taking Back Sunday. I don't even know that band. To me, it's just another one of those bands, where they all look like dudes that should just be cutting grass or something. You know what I mean? With the hair and the T-shirt and the tight pants. Whatever. And then you watch them onstage and they're all like up there swatting flies with their guitars. Some of those dudes can rip and stuff, but where are those guys gonna be in 10 years?
The audiences aren't stupid and they'll find it. The stuff that's good rises to the surface.
That's partially what keeps us going. I mean, everybody here is getting older and some of us are settling into our lives and shit. That's why a few of these guys have either been fired or quit or whatever. If you live it and it's what you do, you're going to keep going no matter what. It's like for Christ's sake, fucking Bob Seger and Peter Frampton just put out albums. They've been going since the 70's. Even though they've sold like mega-millions and it's gonna be profitable for them to put out another record, it's still the same type of thing.
When the Megaforce dude first came around, he was trying to make us into this like metal machine, which we kind of are in a way. But just there's a twist on it. I'm like, Dude, we've lost some fans because the newer shit doesn't sound enough like the old stuff. But the newer stuff is more song-oriented than the older stuff. We have like a die-hard underground that's always gonna love this band and come to shows. I kind of compared it to Slayer even though it's like a smaller-scale than Slayer. But those guys only got played on college radio. They've been doing it so long that they're like legendary now. They're not playing arenas or any shit like that, but they're playing bigger venues and they're making it happen. If we reach that status, I'd be happy with that. I could live comfortable and make some cool records and shit. People for the past few years have been like, Dude, you've gotta do a solo record. So I'm not really that driven to do it, but look out, man because it might happen!
I think you guys are in a great place with your fans, the new record, and the upcoming tour.
We'll see what happens.
2006 Steven Rosen

I never actually heard mushroom head, but i agree that the masks are not a slipknot rip off. Many other bands wear masks and make up on stage, however it makes them seem like a death metal band, are they death metal?

you know all that kinda shit, well some shit kinda shit, thing came up you know, like shit, well after my first band and shit, there wasn't much other shit to do, so like most other people looking for bands and shit, i started mushroomhead, which was kinda shit, but we really evolved some shit outta it.
The History of Mushroomhead in a few lines.....

I agree with the ego thing...that and it sounded as though he was complaining half of the time.
Though, I suppose I can respect his point of view; I'd be pissed having sold half a million records and not getting a big-ass stadium as well.

i like slipknot and mushroomhead alot. and im from Ohio so they are from my homestate. but you cant judge both of these bands. yes, mushroomhead did the whole mask thing first, but who cares? no band is better than any other b/c they are just opinions.

I dont think its the masks or the silly suits that mushroomhead wears. I think is the name "mushroomhead" that has prevented them from entering into the mainstream of music. When I tell people that I'm listening to mushroomhead, they look at me like Im either a drugy or a fag. Im a big fan of mushroomhead and I would still be a fan if they dropped the masks, suits, or changed their name. \m/

Mushroomhead and slipknot sound nothing alike though...and I was listneing to an interview with corey taylor and he said neither band had ever heard of each other until their images were already well defined...Slipknot is mainstream (more or less) and mushroomhead is underground(again,more or less, they are gaining popularity)... I like both bands but mushroomhead is more my style... I think Gravy gets a bad rep for keeping it simpler but I saw him play on MRH's dvd and he's very good...and Props to Insane Esp, MRH is awesome live!

Here's my two cents on Mushroomhead. As far as the mask thing goes, who cares. I must say though that this guy has a huge ego and I have listened to a lot of Slipknot and I've heard a few Mushroomhead songs aswell and in my honest opinion Slipknot, musically, is more technical than Mushroomhead and unlike this dude said I don't consider Slipknot's songs to be just "noise" I think their music is very melodic and Mick and James do their job quite nicely. I think Mushroomhead has talent and some good music but I think they need to figure out somehow to seperate themselves from "everybody else". I mean I don't care technically which one of these guys whether it be Slipknot or Mushroomhead started jamming out first in their garages with masks on the fact of the matter is Slipknot blew up and became popular using the mask thing before Mushroomhead did so that is probably why people compare and will continue to compare anyone to Slipknot who emerges from the nu-metal scene wearing a creepy mask. Just an honest opinion but I think Mushroomhead should trash the masks their music is definately unique which is good but like I said I think Slipknot has played out the mask thing to death.

I saw then live here in colorado like 4 weeks ago and they rip it up like no other,im a huge slipknot fan but they will never be able to touch mushroomhead,especially now that corey went and did his gay shit with stone sour.botom line dave and everbody else are amazing.

Dude im from ****ing hometown cleveland. I have been to like 15 mrh concerts and im only 15. Ive had 10 stitches from their concert. They are better live than anyone ive seen. I even was 13th row at the roger waters concert. I would have rather been at a mushroomhead concert.They did have the masks first and anyone who says that slipknot is better,is a dumbass. For them to say that they better have seen them live, because they wuldnt day that. They have better props, lights, and the water in the drums thing is insane. i will die loving mrh and i get ****ing pissed off when ppl say they suck, becauese they dont.ppl say that their guitarists suck. soo not true. they can shred, just the style they play, doent need solos to sound insane.in my book, their one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time, and i cant wait till there inducted in the hall of fame.

Wow...what an ego, lol. He kinda made it sound like he's the only one who does anything in the band and made sure to point out when a band member doesn't contribute jack. His whole interview is quite the contradiction and very hypoctritical in a lot of the things he says.

Dude... wrote:
Mushroomhead is alright, seem like decent enough people. Although the masks make me think of Slipknot... Which makes the mainstream crowd think they're just a knockoff of them.

They came before Slipknot. Although Slipknot, in my opinion is better and much more succesful than Mushroomhead (wether you like it or not), they stole the masks and the same clothing ideas from Mushroomhead. Im still a slipknot maggot though.

Dude... wrote:
Oh and an excess of the word sh*t.

Too true. But he seems decent enough and Mushroomhead definitely have some good catchy songs. Good for him.

I saw then live here in colorado like 4 weeks ago and they rip it up like no other,im a huge slipknot fan but they will never be able to touch mushroomhead,especially now that corey went and did his gay shit with stone sour.botom line dave and everbody else are amazing.

I think nowadays, were getting pretty good reviews and stuff. But theres a couple reviews here and there that are like, Its not heavy enough. Or, This dude is too whiny or too that. Its like, How can you say that? Listen to everything thats out there. Theres all these bands that are just screaming their heads off and then theyll go into like this whiny part thats not even like a melody. Its just whiny.

i personally have never heard mushroomheads music, but i wish people would stop saying "oh, slipknot nicked the mask idea off mushroomhead" or vice versa... loads of bands do similar things, and no one talks about them!

I really hate all the MRH/Slipknot comparisons. I like Slipknot, but like Gravy said, the only similarity between the two are the damn masks. Everyone steals something from someone unless youre a legend like Sabbath or Zep or whatever. Get over the Slipknot/MRH thing and listen to the damn music. I saw these guys from the front row two weeks ago, and it blew my f*cking mind. I've never been to a more intense show in my life, and I've been to a few. Give these guys a chance!!

Insane Esp wrote:
I saw then live here in colorado like 4 weeks ago and they rip it up like no other,im a huge slipknot fan but they will never be able to touch mushroomhead,especially now that corey went and did his gay shit with stone sour.botom line dave and everbody else are amazing.
Dude im from ****ing hometown cleveland. I have been to like 15 mrh concerts and im only 15. Ive had 10 stitches from their concert. They are better live than anyone ive seen. I even was 13th row at the roger waters concert. I would have rather been at a mushroomhead concert.They did have the masks first and anyone who says that slipknot is better,is a dumbass. For them to say that they better have seen them live, because they wuldnt day that. They have better props, lights, and the water in the drums thing is insane. i will die loving mrh and i get ****ing pissed off when ppl say they suck, becauese they dont.ppl say that their guitarists suck. soo not true. they can shred, just the style they play, doent need solos to sound insane.in my book, their one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time, and i cant wait till there inducted in the hall of fame.

I'm a thrash fan and even I can see MRH are a good, talented band. I do prefer the old stuff to the new though. Would definitely go see them live if I could.
Comparing them with Slipknot is.. plain stupid.

Fuck people stop comparing slipknot and mushroomhead. Their pretty much two completly different bands. Yes Mushroomhead was first but i dont think Slipknot stole the idea of masks. It is possible for people in this world to have the same idea and do the same thing without knowing that someone already did it.

Many different bands have been wearing masks or make up way before Slipknot or MRH, Such as Kiss, Alice Cooper, ect. That and plenty more bands do it today as well. So stop comparing them just cause of the damn masks. I haven't heard much Mushroomhead, so I can't judge, I've heard mixed things about them...like them being Slipknot rip-offs, and vise-versa. But I'm sure I could try them out. I've also heard things about them totally hating Slipknot as well as Slipknot not being too partial to them either. But Slipknot is more popular, and that's not anyone's fault, nor is their anything wrong with that, cause I'm sure their both talented bands. But there's no doubt that MRH is jealous of them , judging from all the contriversy that goes in between them.

Mushroomhead didn't steal from Slipknot -- they were around before Slipknot. Slipknot didn't steal from Mushroomhead -- read a story about how they came up with wearing masks.
Any band can be "dumbass." I find PigBenis a funny name. Makes me chuckle. And I certainly don't HEAR many similarities between Slipknot and Mushroomhead. One is more into moshing, one is more into techno-ish beats.
Saying they "can't play" is like saying that the point of their music is to be music. Even if they weren't technically capable, I think the point of their music is to "make noise" and have fun moshing. If you don't like that, of course you won't like their music. Go listen to some Estaban, Randy Rhoads, or Slash.

k first of all some of you people are dumbasses. you need to do some research slipknot didnt steal the idea of using masks from mushroomhead. they stole the idea of using specific masks. back when mushroomhead started they wore different masks than the xx masks you see them wear now. skinny their drummer wore a gas mask. slipknot comes out and would you look at that! sid wilson their dj wears a gas mask! bronson mushroomheads sampler wore a bondage mask. slipknot comes out and would you look at that! jim root their guitarist wears a bondage mask! mr murdernickle mushroomheads bassist wore a pig mask. slipknot comes out and would you look at that! paul gray slipknots bassist a bassist just like mr murdernickle is wearing a pig mask! next your going to make an argument about something know what your talking about first.
secondly i saw that somebody else say they liked xiii better than savior sorrow. i agree i was worried that i was holding something against waylon. well i kind of do but savior sorrow seems so different from xiii. whatever that difference is i dont like it.